Sunday, June 14th - Chateaudun (corrected - sorry for all the typos...oops! I can spell, I just can't type...lol)

At 2:45 I took the bus to Chateaudun. Chateaudun is a tiny little town... cute and welcoming, but tiny. It is definitely full of history. There was , of course, no baggage storage at the train station... so I had to walk almost 2 miles (45 min.) uphill (both ways?) to the chateau. When I got there, a very nice lady in the gift shop offered to hold my bags behing the counter. Needless to say, I was extremely grateful. I believe my exact words were, "Vous ne pouvez pas imaginer comment vous m'avez aide." (You cannot imagine how much you've helped me.) Although, my head was silently screaming YES, YES, YES, I would love to leave my bags here. The nice lady also took a picture of me in front of the castle.
The castle dates back to the middle ages. It has a small chapel, a beautiful indoor/outdoor winding staircase, a tower whose walls are 4 meters thick, a dungeon, an underground prison, and a garden filled with plants and herbs from the middle ages. In the middle ages, people believed in the 4 humours (or elements) and that to be physically well, there had to be a balance between the humours. When a person was unbalanced, foods and herbs were used to rebalance them. Likewise, in the kitchen, foods and herbs were used according to the 4 seasons to maintain a healthy balance.
After visiting the castle, I bought some books on the middle ages to use in my French III classes. Then I loaded myself back up and began the long trek back to the train station, I stopped at a bakery along the way and bought 2 bottles of water and a loaf of French bread, for lunch and dinner. I got back to the train station with about 20 minutes to spare before the bus to Orleans. The weather was beautiful all day and as I waited for my bus, I realized that I had actually gotten sunbuned. I guess I'll have to use some of of that sunscreen I bought especially for this trip. Upon arriving in Orleans, I quickly found a hotel room near the train station. It was a little more than I would like to pay, but it was late and it was close. I was exhausted from the days adventures and I took a long bath, watched a lttle TV, and SLEPT like a baby.